Fw: Back to Europe - 3
Gins.pt
Mon 17 May 2010 21:37
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----- Original Message -----
From: Peter Testen
To: story
Sent: Sunday, May 17, 2009 8:13 AM
Subject: Back to Europe - 3 On Monday morning (May 10) we finally reached the
area with some wind and set the sails after 29 hours of running with the
motor.
In the late afternoon the wind got
stronger ( 6-7 Bf) turning to northeast creating waves higher than 3m. We
had to steer as close as possible to the wind to keep the direction. It became
quite uncomfortable and by dawn the wind turned to NNW which was our direction
The fight against the wind, the waves and the current was hard, but despite very
good boat speed we could only make 4 miles towards to
destination.
By the evening we had enough of
shaking, rolled the sails away and did the last 70 miles under motor. At
6:05 local time we crossed the finish line at the entrance to the St. George's harbour on Bermuda.
In 5 days and 17 hours on the ocean we sailed 864 nautical miles (1600
km).
We had a very friendly conversation with the
Bermuda Radio about 26 miles to the coast. They supervise the 30 miles
circle around Bermuda and they offer navigational help and give the permissions
to enter the harbour through a very narrow channel. They do ask a lot of
questions about the boat, the crew and its equipment. We have sent the
questionaire in advance, so the radio procedure
was rather short.
The customs dock was empty and the procedure was
fast without any questions, but some paperwork which I prepared in advance. They
are open 24 hours.
The pier in the Dingy & Sports Club Marina is
rather short with a space for 15 yachts. We set the anchor in 7m depth and 50 m
of chain and went stern to the pier as the first boat. In the late afternoon the
wind started blowing again reaching some 25 knots by the next morning. Our two
neighbourd on the starboard side had to leave as
their anchors were no longer holding.
We did not have any issue but we
were staying on GIN'S the whole day
to be able to react fast to wind increase or anchor
slippage.
Friday was calm and we payed a visit to the Bermuda
Radio station.
It was very interesting to see how they monitor the
space around the island to protect the very wide range of reefs. After that
Igor rented a small bike ( moped ) as foreigners are not allowed to drive a car
on the island and we drove around for couple of hours.
The new crew for the next leg to Azores islands
arrived on Saturday night and Igor left on Sunday morning via New York and
London to
Vienna.
Now it is time to prepare the boat and the crew for
the start on Wednesday at 12:00
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